We had decided that we would get out and do something to see the city a bit more this weekend. We were debating a cruise, a trip to the islands, a visit to Eminolu, or a few other options. The weather was looking moderately uncooperative though, so we decided to walk down to the square in Ortaköy and hop on one of the Bosphorus cruises that was getting ready to depart. We'd been on the ferry already, and that was a lot of fun, so we figured a longer tour couldn't really hurt, and this one would be going in the opposite direction (north rather than south).
The cruise probably lasted about an hour, maybe a little more, and ran 20TL per adult (that's just shy of $6 right now, and BOTH kids were free--awesome!). On board they served tea and other beverages, and they walked around to server you. There was a covered area with chairs and tables on the main deck, so you could easily sit back and just enjoy the view. We decided to head up a level and get a better view. There were chairs and tables there as well, and benches all along the front of the boat.
It was a little chilly and breezy on our way out, but it began to warm up a bit as the sun came out. Our tour took us from Ortaköy, just south of the Bosphorus bridge, up the to Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, then turned around and came back.
Probably the most interesting thing we saw on our tour was Rumelihisarı, a castle built by the Ottomans in the 1400's. It was apparently built in 3 months and used to "control the sea traffic on the Bosphorus strait and prevent aid from the Black Sea to reach Constantinople during the Turkish siege of the city in 1453" (thank you Wikipedia).
On our return voyage we mostly just had fun soaking up the scenery and taking some photos of ourselves along the water.
We also got some nice views of the bridge and surrounding palaces on our way back. I think even the munchkins had a good time, though they were clearly tired by the time we got back.
We allowed them a few minutes of play time at the playground in the square (which we visit entirely too often. Then we ended the day the right way - with a dinner at a Turkish restaurant. The place we went to specialized in grilled foods/kebabs, and they were delicious. It was served with flatbread that was thin like a taco shell and a side of barley. It also came with oodles of topics, including some salsa-like tomato sauce, onions, parsley, lemon, cabbage, peppers, and so much more. There were so many plates on our table we could barely fit everything, but it was sooooo good. :-) We ended our meal the traditional way, with çay, and then browsed the markets in the square on our way home.
We ended up going to a place called Nonstop Beach. Normally it is 15TL to get in, but Tuğce negotiated with the people at the beach and got us in for free. We got there around 9:30-10:00, and the beach was almost completely empty, but they were also still cleaning it. There was a bit of seaweed on the beach, but we were still able to have a good time there. The biggest problem was that there were little bugs in the shallow water. Once you got further out into the deep water, they were not a problem, but it really made wading unpleasant.
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